The chapel speaker was Ryan A. Bowman, a TMC graduate in the class of 1994. He has worked with Chick-fil-A for the past 18 years, currently serving as a senior leadership consultant. He began his talk with a brief history of Chick-fil-A, especially the fact that it was begun by Truett Cathy and his brother as a tiny restaurant in Hapeville, GA, and has grown until today there are 1,400 Chick-fil-A stores in the United States, and annual sales are approaching $3 billion.

He issued a challenge to Truett-McConnell students to strive for excellence, keeping in mind that success means measuring oneself against someone else, while excellence means measuring oneself against his/her own potential. He talked about the three truths which guide him in his own personal striving for excellence:

Each of us was made with precision by God.

Each of us was bought with a price—the life of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.